I was on a coaching call recently with a senior leader who had learned that “corporate” came up with a new set of company values and had instructed each location to “roll them out.”
This senior leader was not involved in the process of developing these new values, nor were any of her employees, yet she was being told to implement them.
The first of these corporate values is related to PEOPLE.
Anyone see a contradiction here?
This leader agreed with putting people first. However, not only did corporate not involve any people in the field offices in developing the values – but the business objectives (and corresponding budgets) for this organization are all focused on NON-PEOPLE related metrics, except ONE…physical safety.
In our coaching session, she asked what I thought about it since I had been in HR for years prior to coaching.
I acknowledged what appeared to be a gap between corporate’s “intention” vs. the actual “impact.” And then we discussed the following:
Leaders must first focus on what they can control and influence. And you never want to do to your people what you may be experiencing.
Here is how she concluded she would move forward in her own application of the value of people:
– Involve her team in decision-making (from the front lines to the senior leaders)
– Collaborate with her team to get their feedback and ideas on what they value and what it means at their location to put people first
– Take action on those values in a way that everyone can buy in to
Full disclosure: I have been a senior corporate HR leader. I understand the importance of alignment of values throughout all locations. And I can understand the pressure to make top-down decisions.
But in my experience, mandating values is not the answer. If we don’t get buy in from the ground up, the values will simply be a list of words hanging in the lobby or in the hallway of your office.
Your senior leaders are ambassadors for you to the rest of the organization, and it’s essential that they are bought in and are given a voice in these crucial discussions and decisions so that they will be engaged and bought-in to living them and cascading them.
True alignment comes from discovering the current values of your employees, how they are currently experiencing your workplace culture (from a values perspective), and the values they desire to experience in order for the org to fulfill its potential.
If you struggle with alignment within your leadership teams, you’re not alone. Overcoming this challenge and breaking through to a new level of unity and buy-in among teams is one of the biggest wins we’ve seen come out of The Coach Approach to Leadership™ Program and our cultural values assessment process.
There is a better way…